A Landmark Photograph

Art > Photography
Communication > Journalism
History > U.S. 1900-1930

Analyzes the cultural, historical and visual meaning of an early journalistic photograph of the future thirty-first president Herbert Hoover surveying the severe damages resulting from the 1927 Mississippi River flood.

2,050 words () | 3 sources | MLA | 2009 United States

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that this photograph depicts then Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover visiting with young residents living in poverty in one of the many tent cities run by the Red Cross to house refugees of the flooded states. The colors, lighting and composition of the photo, the author relates, all contribute to the message of the coming Great Depression, an era in which art, especially photography, flourished. The paper concludes that the U.S. history is full of landmark photographs that pull at the heartstrings of the public and, at their most powerful, affect much needed social and political change

From the Paper:

"When considering the context of the image, one finds many symbols of it that denote the essence of the time. Even the children's bare feet serve as a symbol of the hardships that were only beginning. Under this analysis the image presents a message of poverty, the tone sad, resigned. From this perspective Hoover is cast as the ineffective authoritarian figure. He is there as a representative of the country's leaders but the people are still misplaced and suffering. The tents in the photograph are a symbol of the temporariness of the situation."

Sample of Sources Used:

Lester, Paul Martin. Visual Communication: Images with Messages (2005). ThomsonWadsworth: New York. 464 pages.
Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History (2006). Laurence King Publishing:London. 560 pages
McDannell, Colleen. Picturing Faith: Photography and the Great Depression (2004). Yale University Press: New Haven. 319 pages.